Mental degeneracy may be caused by lead poisoning. Or by a poor dip in the gene pool.
Degeneracy follows every autocratic system of violence, for violence inevitably attracts moral inferiors. Time has proven that illustrious tyrants are succeeded by scoundrels.
If there is anything good about nobility it is that it enforces the necessity of avoiding degeneracy.
Those who wallow around in the sickness of their immorality and degeneracy get very little joy out of life here and certainly not much promise is held out for them hereafter.
Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid.